Silicon Valley

Space Plant Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary established by Gene Umbrella. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the company's CEO Roy Richardson came to meet Henry.

There is no doubt that growing plants in space has enormous significance.

Astronauts cannot live in space without oxygen, food and water. At present, almost all these materials are sent into space by launching spacecraft, which is very expensive. Cultivating more plants in space can produce more oxygen, and at the same time, vegetables can be cultivated to achieve self-sufficiency, and animals can even be domesticated on the space station as a source of meat. These can not only reduce the cost of astronauts living in space, but with the development of technology, it may also be of great significance for humans to enter space for a long-term life, or even immigrate to alien planets.

Roy Richardson is tall and thin, with a high nose bridge, big eyes, short hair, in his fifties, and a Ph.D. in biology from Cambridge University.

Henry asked Violet to pour him a glass of water, and then began to inquire about the Space Plant Company.

"Roy Richardson, please briefly introduce the Space Plant Company first!"

"Okay, Your Majesty," Roy Richardson nodded respectfully, and said, "As early as 1997, the Gene Umbrella Company established a department dedicated to the study of space plants. In 2003, the Gene Umbrella Company separated the department, The Space Plant Company was established. So far, the Space Plant Company has a total of 1,000 researchers, of whom about 20 need to work on the space station for a long time! Factors such as weightlessness, cleanliness, and cosmic rays in space will affect the survival and development of plants. , aging and mutation have unique effects. Breeding in space is a new challenge for us. In order to discover the difference between space breeding and earth breeding as soon as possible, when we studied space plants at the earliest stage, we specially selected growth Vegetables such as bean sprouts, green vegetables, and radishes with a short cycle time are brought into space for cultivation, and to observe the effects of various vegetables on growth and disease resistance in the space environment. After years of hard work, the space plant company has obtained We have achieved very good results. We have successfully cultivated 30 new crops with high quality, high yield and strong disease resistance in the space environment.

Food crops are: rice, corn, wheat.

Economic crops include: oilseeds, peanuts, roses, lavender, sesame, tea, coffee, tobacco leaves.

Fruits are: apples, pears, strawberries.

Medicinal crops are: ginseng, angelica, honeysuckle, mint.

Vegetable crops are the most, including: bean sprouts, radishes, cabbage, celery, leeks, garlic, onions, carrots, lotus, peppers, tomatoes and coriander. "

"Oh, it sounds pretty good!" Henry said in surprise, he didn't expect there to be so many products.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your compliment! However, the production conditions in space are harsh, and these crops cannot be mass-produced for the time being. At present, they can only provide services for astronauts and those engaged in space research on the space station!" Roy Richardson said.

"Technical difficulties will be broken one day, and human wisdom is infinite!" Henry said, "The Williams Empire has decided to vigorously develop the space industry. Space food is the basis for survival, and it is especially important! I will allocate it to space. The plant company has 25 billion US dollars in research funding, from now on, the space plant company must increase its research and development efforts!"

"Yes!" Roy Richardson nodded heavily.

After Roy Richardson left, Henry meditated alone.

The key factors that prevent space plants from being mass-produced are water and space. The space of the space station is not much, and it must be outrageous to use it to grow plants. The spaceX space station is an inflatable space station, and its space area is far larger than other space stations, which is ok in this regard. But the cost of transporting water to the space station is too high. It costs tens of millions of dollars to launch a rocket, and transporting space plants to the earth also requires expensive expenses!

Therefore, the mass production of space plants can only be realized if the transportation link is solved. The ideal solution is to build a space elevator to transport water to the space station! The Williams empire is close to Antarctica, which holds 72 percent of the world's freshwater reserves. Without a doubt, Antarctica is the best place to get water! ! !

Building a "space elevator" requires light and heavy-duty materials. The scientific community agrees that graphene is the best material because it is not only the thinnest material in the world, but also the strongest material in the world, with the best fracture strength ratio. Steel is 200 times higher! It is a pity that graphene itself is difficult to manufacture, and using it to make a space elevator is tantamount to fantasy! However, this is possible for the Williams empire.

Supermaterials has been ahead of the world in the field of graphene manufacturing for more than ten years. Before 2000, Henry had already come up with China's graphene manufacturing technology in 2015 in his previous life. Henry understands the importance of graphene very well, and it is definitely the most important thing in all research projects! Therefore, the research and development of graphene is beyond the imagination of the outside world. Perhaps, the research and development funds of institutions or companies engaged in graphene research all over the world are not as much as that of super material companies.

Super Materials Company is absorbing the world's best material talents every year, and its annual research and development expenditure has exceeded 20 billion U.S. dollars, and the expenditure is still increasing year by year. The more esoteric the research, the more things will be involved. Naturally, more research and development funds and talent investment will be required.

Henry is planning for the future by acquiring graphite mines around the world. How much graphene does it take to build a space elevator. What's more, Henry didn't just build a sky elevator. Some sky elevators are used for pipeline water transportation, some are used for freight, some are used for tourism, and some are used for military affairs. Therefore, at least 4 sky elevators should be built.

For the time being, Henry does not plan to rush to build a space elevator, but to make technical reserves. When the Williams Empire establishes a base on the moon, the "Sky Elevator" plan will be officially launched at that time. The moon and the earth will build sky elevators one after another, using the space station as an intermediate station to connect the moon and the earth. , the sky elevator can play its biggest role. At that time, the manufacturing technology of graphene will definitely get a breakthrough again.

At this moment, plans for a moon base are underway. SpaceX is responsible for making spacecraft, Alpha is responsible for making intelligent robots and space vehicles, and Space Plant is responsible for making food.

SpaceX will land on the moon next year, send 10 astronauts to the moon, and then establish a lunar base there.

(to be continued ~^~)